Charles T. Brues.
Notes on South African Phoridæ (Diptera).
Psyche 26:39-43, 1919.

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1919] B~ue.s-Notes on South African Phda (Diptva) 39 out New England.
Generally distributedy sometimes very com- mon locally. Most numerous in spring and fall months. 127. Hancockys Pygmy Locusty Acrydium hancocki Morse. Known from Randolph, N. H., and northern Mainey in July and August. Taken on damp spots on roadsides and in fields. 128. Obscure Pygmy Locusty Acrydium arenosum angu&um Hancock.
Widely distributed and common locally from eastern Maine and northern Vermont southward. Found in the same haunts as the Ornate Pygmy Locust.
129. Hooded Pygmy Locust, Paratettiz cuc~llatus Burmeister. Common, even abundant locallyy in Connecticut in late August. Lives as far north as Alstead, N. H., in the Connecticut valley, .and is recorded by Scudder from the vicinity of Boston. It fre- quents the shores of ponds and streams, resting on sand, mud, or stones.
130. Sedge Pygmy Locust, Tettigidea lateralis parvipennis Harris. Wety sedgy meadowsy springy runs, etc., throughout New Eng- land, in every month of the season.
Common, sometimes plenti-
My especially on sandy loam.
NOTES ON SOUTH AFRICAN PHORIDE (DIPTERA) . BY CHARLES T. BRUES,
Bussey Institutiony Harvard University.
Dr. L. Peringuey of the South African Museum at Cape Town, recently sent me several specimens of Phoridz belonging to the Museum collections, one of which is of considerable intereste1 This is the female of the genus Conoprosopa which proves to be almost completely wingless and very highly modified. There is also a very distinct species of Paraspiniphora which is here de- scribed.
1 Owing to the conditions brought about by the war and the impossibility of publishing the Anna18 of the South African Museum at the pre8ent time, Dr. Peringuey has kindly given me permission to have this short note published in an American journal.



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[April
Paraspiniphora armipes sp. nov.
Q . Length 4 mm.
Black; head, except ocellar space, anten- nae, fourth segment of abdomen, apex of fifth and ovipositor bright ferruginous ; palpi orange yellow ; legs pale brownish yellow, the hind femora lined above with black; wings with a pale brownish cast, the venation dull piceous; halteres, extreme postero-lateral corners of mesonotum and extreme base of wing, including veins yellowish white. Front very slightly higher than broad, its bristles strong; post-antenna1 pair approximate, strongly reclinate; lower row strongly curved downward medially, the median pair con- siderably further from one another than from the laterals which1 are well removed from the eye; upper row straight, on the median line twice as far from the lower row as from the ocellar one, con- sisting of four equidistant bristles, the lateral ones close to the eye; surface of front with scattered minute hairs. Post-ocular cilia much enlarged at upper two-thirds. Cheeks each with a pair of large bristles directed downward and a single small one at the level of the antenna. Antenne small, oval; arista less than twice as long as the front. Palpi large and stout, with strong bristles; proboscis heavily chitinized, hard and shining, as large as one of the palpi. Mesonoturn rather elongate, its surface shin- ing; one pair of dorsocentral bristles set at the posterior margin with a series of six small bristles forming a row between them; scu- tellum short and broad, with four large, equal bristles. Propleura hairy, with a pair of bristles near the base of the coxa and another pair below the spiracle; remainder of pleur~ bare except for an area of hairs on the mesopleura anteriorly above. Abdomen bare, except at apex,. with the second segment distinctly, but not greatly elongated. Legs rather stout, the posterior femur about one- third as broad as long; front tibia with a bristle at the basal third and a series of five minute, but very distinct ones just before apex; middle tibia with a series of five bristles on the hind edge, the first near the base and the last almost at apex, also with two serial bristles externally near base and with a patch of comb-like hairs near apex; hind tibia with a series of four or five bristles along the hind edge beginning at the basal fifth and extending to the apical third; just outside these with a series of six, four on the basal half and two on the apical half; then with a third series of four on the



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1919] Bme-Notes on South African Phrid~ (Diptera) 4 1 front edge (i. e., next the femur extending from just before the middle to the apical fourth; in addition with two spurs and an apical spine opposite these. All the tibia1 spines stout, but not very long. Wings large, but rather narrow; costal vein extending to the middle, with extremely minute, hair-like bristles; first sec- tion nearly four times as long as the second and third together; third vein with a single bristle at the base; fork of third vein scarcely perceptible as the second lies very close to it; fourth vein close to the costal margin, slightly curved on basal half and re- curved equally toward apex; following veins straight, the seventh long. Halteres pale yellow.
Type from Durban, Cape Colony (Marley), April, 1915. Type
in the South African Museum.
In the armature of the tibiz this species differs from any other hitherto described from any part of the world and will be readily recognized by these characters alone.
Conoprosopa Becker .
1909 Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris, p. 113. 1910 Brues, Psyche, Vol. 17, p. 34 (Co~gptilomyio). 1911 Becker Ann. Soc. Ent. France, Vol. 29, p. 30. 191% Enderlein, Stettiner Ent . Zeit . p. 5 1 (Metopotropis) . 191% Brues, Psyche, Vol. 19> p. 135.
As indicated in the last reference above Conoprosopa, Corypti- hgia and Metopotropis are synonymous and the three type species are probably also identical. These three were all described from the male which is of very peculiar structure, particularly in the form of the head. The female has remained unknown,l but was presumably to be found not markedly different from the male. A pair taken in copula shows the female to be an almost wingless, highly modified, cockroach-like form similar to the females of several genera known from various parts of the world. Of none of the latter is the male definitely known although Platyphora of Europe and America is probably the male of Enigmatias known also from these continents. Of Bnigmatistes, Enigmatopzus Thaumatoxena, etc., from Africa only the apterous females are known.
1 The sex of the types was mistsken by Enderlein and myself.



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49 Payche [April
The female of Conoprosopa is most nearly similar to Bnigmatis- tes described from British East Africa by Shelford in 190g2 and if *
the male should prove to be similar to that of Conoprosopa, the two might perhaps be considered as congeneric. Conoprosopa differs quite markedly from Bniymati~tes in the broader head which is much more closely applied to the thorax and to a lesser degree by its smaller antennal cavities and form of the lower side of the head. From Thaumatoxena, which it resembles more closely in the form of the head and thorax it differs in the multiseg- mented abdomen and the dorsal position of the antennal cavities. A most interesting note accompanies the present specimens stating that when the pair was captured the male was carrying the female between its legs and flying about a lamp. In the description that follows, I have used the specific name armigera as I am sure the male is identical with this species, al- though, as mentioned above, the three species of the genus are probably not distinct. In the latter case C. scutellata Becker would be the older name.
Conoproso~a armigera Brues (Fig. 1 .) .
Psyche, Vol. 17, p. 35
(1910) (Corgptilomyia) 8.
Female. Length 2.2 mm. Broadly oval, much flattened, about half as wide as long, wings represented by minute, finger-shaped vestiges. Head seen from above crescentic and closely applied to the thorax; anterior margin sharply carinate, front and vertex sloping down rather sharply, without macroch~t~; face gently convex, almost horizontal, broadly curved behind and forming the underside of the head; its width about a fourth greater than its length; its lateral angles, which form the anterior corner of the antennal cavities, sharply and acutely angled. Antenne small,
the third joint rounded, with a bare arista; antennal cavities not visible from above, and the antenn~ projecting but slightly, a part of the third joint being visible from above near the hind angle of the head. Palpi very short, bare, their tips visible from below between the antennze and front coxe. Eyes small, oval, placed at the ex- treme lateral angles of the head, not visible from below; thorax 2 Journ. Linn. SOC. Zool., Vol. 30, p. 150



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191 91 Brues-Notes on South African Phrida? (Diptera) 43 consisting of one segment91 very much widened behind and with nearly straight sides; prothoracic spiracles large, on the upper surface, not far from the anterior margin, but well removed from the sides; wing pads about half as long as the sides of the thoraxy Fig. 1.
Conoprosopa armigera Brues, female. Dorsal view and front view of head.
heavily chitinized at the base and along the anterior margin, but hyaline apically behind; clothed with fine hairs. Abdomen with six visible segments9 the first nearly as long medially as the thoraxy but contracted to a point 1ateralIy; second somewhat shorter and 1 There is some doubt in my mind as to whether I have interpreted correctly the segmentation of the body.
Shelford has considered the thorax of Bnigmatistes as consisting of three seg- ments, but as all the wingless female Phoridze of more normal body shape have the thorax much reduced, I assume such to be the case with Conoprosopa. Enderlein takes the same view in re- gard to Oniscomyia,




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44 Ps?jche [April
not narrowed laterally, with its margins strongly arcuate, but nearly parallel; third and fourth each only a little more than half as long as the second and but little narrower; fifth and sixth shorter and suddenly narrower. Legs rather short and not very stout; anterior tibize without bristles: middle tibize each with a pair of unequal bristles at the basal third and with two long spurs and several shorter bristles at the tip; hind tibia with a series of about ten strong bristles externally, about as long as the width of the tibia; these form a single row except at the base where three of them are in a second row anterior to the first one. Color: head, thorax and legs pale brownish yellow, the antennae and palpi lighter; abdomen fuscous, darker laterally and at tip; underside quite decidedly paler than the upper. Described from a single female from Natal, August, 1915. (B. Marley.) In the collection of the South African Museum.
FOSSIL CYNIPIDE .I
The following references to fossil Cynipidze have been made regularly throughout the literature, but as here indicated no one of the references applies to a description or location of a true gall- wasp.
SCHLOTHEIM, E. F., 1820. Die Petrefactenhunde. Gotha. Page 43, merely names " Cynips " in a list of fossil insects known, mainly from amber.
PRESL, J. S., 1822. Delici~ P~agenses Historiam Naturalem Spectantes. Pragz., Vol. 1, p. 195, has this: c ' C ~ ~ ~ ~ s SUCCINEA. Longitudo $ lineze. Caput globosum, parvulum, rufescens; antennz longze, fere quaker longitudine sua caput superantes, evidenter ex articulis minutis zequalibus compositze. Thorax tergo atro, pectore rufescente.
Abdomen ovale, sty10 dependens,
lucidum, fuscum.
Alze quatuor, anteriores obovatze, latze, corpore longiores fere tantum, quantum longitudo abdominis efficit, pellucidze, inquibus decursus venarum non determinabilis quoniam a l ~ posteriores subtus jacent; alze posteriores parum breviores lcontributiom from the Entomological Laboratory of the Bussey Institution, Harvard Univer~ity, No. 154.




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